As we make our way back to the bus, we are always intrigued by the book sellers along the Seine.  The bouquinistes (booksellers) go back to the Middle Ages and are unique to Paris.  The story has it, a boat carrying loads of books sank near Notre-Dame Cathedral.  The sailors swam ashore taking with they as many books as they could and sold them to the passers by to make up for the wages they had lost.   This may be French lore, but it makes a good story.

Today they sell books, posters, paintings, historical maps and more.  We bought 4 classic posters, a 1615 map of Paris, a Renoir,  a Degas, and a Toulouse Lautrec.

Back to the grave yard

Friday, May 31

This is Brian's day to choose our activities and he wants to find more important dead people.  Today we went to the Montparnasse cemetery.  We took the Metro to gare Montparnasse and took a short walk to the cemetery.  There are a lot of writers, artists, intellectuals, and others buried there.  There's a directory to show where every notable grave is located.  We found Samuel Beckett, author of  "Waiting for Godot", Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, the darlings of the intellectual movement and Eugene Ionesco, a playwright.

Friday, May 31

Guy de Maupassant was a popular 19th-century French writer considered one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of the form's finest exponents.

We also found the final resting place of Alfred Dreyfus, falsely convicted of treason and later exonerated and the subject of the book "The Dreyfus Affair".

Friday, May 31

We saw some beautiful and unusual gravesites.  The picture of the one with the giant modern bird says, "A beautiful, young bird that flew too soon".  The other has a couple in bed, maybe that's what is meant by "rest in peace".

Friday, May 31

Lunch was at Les Deux Magots.  It was a beautiful restaurant and the food was delicious.  This was one of the places Ernest Hemingway hung out--after he became more well to do.  Magots is French for figurine.  These pictured, were left over from the previous owners, an Asian fabric company.

Friday, May 31

We found the second "Shakespeare and Company".  Brian & I each bought a book and had the official Shakespeare and Company imprint stamped in the books.  Tom took a photo of a warning on the door.

We crossed the River Seine to see Notre-Dame once again.  This time, we wanted to see the Treasury inside the cathedral.  It was assembled gradually from the time of the cathedral's origins.  At the end of the 18th century, the Treasury of Notre-Dame was one of the most splendid in Europe.  There are Reliquaries that are supposed to contain the Crown of Thorns and pieces of the True Nail and the True Cross.  Rick Steves says it's not worth the 4€ admission price.  But I wanted to see it, and I'm glad I did.

Friday night dinner

Our friend, Michele joined us for dinner.  We had a little pre-dinner offering of pâté, French cheeses, and wine at our apartment.  We are really enjoying this French lifestyle.  We had an 8pm dinner reservation at our neighborhood bistro, Le Morgane.  Brian and Michele were so impressed that Chef Riad welcomed us by name!  (We're flattered that he remembered our names too!).   Tom had praised the lamb shank so highly he couldn't resist it again, and Brian and Michele had to give it a try.  I choose the chicken with a delicious mushroom sauce.  It came with French fries.  We had such a nice evening, and Tom walked Michele to the bus stop around 11:30.